Chapter 44
FORTY-FOUR
nate
Me: Coop’s going to manipulate you into bringing him to my game.
Olivia: I go willingly.
Maybe I read more into that text than Olivia meant, but she wanted me to know that she was going for me, not only Austin.
Olivia’s walls had crumbled, and while I wanted to work every angle to lock her down, she needed more time. There were so many variables. Our age difference was only one of them.
Me: I love you willing…
Olivia: Is that because that usually means I’m on my knees?
Me: I’m in a locker room with a bunch of naked men, and now I’m half hard.
Olivia: I’ve got a few minutes alone, and I’m thinking of you.
Me: Fingers or toys?
Olivia: Both. But they’re not enough…
Fuck. Now I was hard as stone. I snapped a picture of my erection and sent it to her.
Me: You’re gonna pay for this when we’re alone later.
Olivia: Can’t wait.
When I was on the field, I looked to the spot in the stands where Cooper and Olivia’s tickets were.
My gaze fell to the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen—she felt it—as if she could feel me looking at her, studying her.
And while I was too far away from her to see all the details of her expression, there was a hint of something new there.
My attention was ripped away from my daydream as I heard the crack of a bat.
I fielded the ball, tossed it underhand to second, he stepped on the bag, and shot it to first, in time.
A classic 6, 4, 3 double play. As I jogged to the dugout, I looked up once more at Olivia, where she was on her feet, clapping and smiling so hard, her face had to hurt.
I might have known that Olivia was more than Austin’s sister the night I met her; I sensed she was my future.
But that night, it had been about what I thought Olivia was to me.
Watching her cheer for me, I wanted to be the man who made Olivia smile like that every fucking day.
Because she beamed with pride. I wanted to be the man who made her proud.
“What’s in your head, man?” Gonzo asked, after noticing me looking into the stands.
I looked around the dugout for Austin and nodded towards him before giving a quick shake of the head.
“She’s here for you, huh?”
“Yup.”
He nudged my shoulder. “At some point, you’re gonna need to tell him. Just give us a warning first, okay?”
Well, that time would only happen if Olivia thought this was worth telling him.
I wasn’t stupid. Relationships like this were always tougher on the women than the men.
Olivia had so much more on her plate than I did—shit, I just played baseball.
But even the thought of those complications got me excited.
She’d admitted to feelings, and that was a first step.
I just needed to make sure she kept taking steps forward—even if they were baby steps.
“We’re not there—yet.”
Jack Lecompte was pitching, and while he’d so far pitched a clean game, we hadn’t been able to do much offensively.
It looked like Cooper was going to leave the stadium disappointed.
Along with a smaller-than-usual crowd. We might have turned a double play just now, but our flavor of the night at third base had committed an error that resulted in two runs scoring.
But even as the game went on, and it became clear we were headed for a loss, I planned to sneak into Olivia’s room. And something about the thought that I’d see her at the end of the day made it all okay.
Austin slid in next to me.”Nice to see being out all night last night didn’t affect your game.”
It was like a chain from there; once one of the guys heard I’d been out, they were all in on it. And Austin’s jokes about me getting laid had Gonzo unable to contain his glee.
“Man, the fireworks are gonna be big when this shit goes down.”
“We don’t need anymore fireworks this year.”
“Then I guess it’s up to you to make good choices. The good thing is, there’s nothing you can do to make this team suck worse than they already do.”
“What if it were your sister?” I asked Gonzo.
“You’d be dead,” he said as he ducked into the showers after the game.
“Nice. Really reassuring.”